The Ohio State coaching staff is already beginning to identify some of the top priorities in the 2013 class. Among that group is Voorhees (N.J.) Eastern Regional corner Eli Woodard. The 6-foot, 170-pound prospect already holds a verbal offer from the Buckeyes after an outstanding camp performance in June. Woodard has been to Columbus numerous times over the past few years and is hoping to make it back within the next month.

"I'm trying to get there in early August," explained Woodard. "I'd like to see some practices and stuff and I've talked to the coaches about it. I'm just going to check my schedule again just to see (if it can work with his high school schedule)."

The two biggest stories recently in the world of Ohio State football have been the self imposed sanctions the school put on itself and the Monday hire of Mike Vrabel as linebackers coach. Woodard commented on each of these news items.

On the self imposed sanctions - "I've always been an Ohio State fan and I'll always pull for them no matter what," he said. "I feel like it's not really my place to comment on (the self imposed sanctions) but Ohio State is definitely high on my list of colleges and this doesn't really affect me."

On the hiring of Mike Vrabel - "I feel like it's a great hire," he said. "When I saw him at the camp he seems like a great guy and a great player's type coach. I think it's going to get a lot of recruits to come to Ohio State just so they can be coached by one of the best ever to come through Ohio State. It's a great move."

Woodard holds four early offers from Notre Dame, Ohio State, Purdue, and Rutgers. All four offers were the result of a rigorous summer camp schedule but Woodard feels his hard has paid dividends.

"It was definitely worth everything," he said. "All of the hard work definitely paid off. I'm just glad it turned out the way it did."

In addition to the four offers, Woodard is hearing from some of the nation's top programs including; Alabama, Boston College, Florida, Penn State, and Virginia Tech. Recently, one SEC school has been turning up the heat as well.

"Right now South Carolina is showing a lot of interest recently," he said. "I'll be going down there for a visit this weekend. I just want to go down there and get to know the university more and go and see the campus and get a feel for it."

When Woodard hasn't been busy making camp stops and unofficial visits, he has been taking part in pre-season workouts with his high school teammates.

"Right now we're having little mini-camps," he said. "Our offense is coming together and finally getting the plays down and our defense has changed a little bit. I feel like we're going to have a strong team this year."

During the fall, Woodard says he plans to attend a few Ohio State football games.